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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhite Indiana woman viciously beats black meter reader for pepper-spraying her dogs
An Indiana woman is accused of viciously beating a meter reader who used pepper spray on her dogs.
April Miller-Johnson, a veteran meter reader for Vectren Corp., said she had just finished examining a utility meter outside an Evansville home when the homeowner let two dogs outside, reported the Evansville Courier & Press.
The 54-year-old Johnson said she yelled at the dogs as they charged toward her and then used her Vectren-issued pepper spray as the animals continued approaching.
The homeowner, identified as 30-year-old Kim Jordan, came outside and yelled at the meter reader for spraying the dogs with the chemical irritant.
Miller-Johnson, who is black, said she left to continue her work, but she said Jordan, who is white, briefly followed her before returning home.
Then Jordan and her fiancé pulled up in a sport utility vehicle, and the woman jumped out and attacked the meter reader, police said.
Miller-Johnson and a witness said Jordan repeatedly beat the meter reader in the eye with some type of can and then grabbed her by the hair and hit the back of her head with the can.
The witness said she tried to confront Jordan before the woman got back into her SUV and fled.
Police found Miller-Johnson lying face down and bleeding, and several bystanders were trying to help the meter reader.
Miller-Johnson was treated at an area hospital for head and eye injuries.
At least one neighbor told WFIE-TV the meter reader was justified in using pepper spray to defend herself against the dogs.
Its not clear how big the dogs are or what breed they are.
I would have done the same thing, especially when it comes to protection of your well-being, said Brittney Ramsey, who walks past Jordans home nearly every day. I thought she had every right to do that. Now that its happened, it does make me nervous to even walk down the street with my animal or my child, because I wouldnt want that to happen to me. Theyve obviously done it once whos to say they cant do it again?
Jordan was arrested a short time later driving on an expressway nearby and charged with battery with injury.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/white-indiana-woman-viciously-beats-black-meter-reader-for-pepper-spraying-her-dogs/
randys1
(16,286 posts)still_one
(92,454 posts)IVoteDFL
(417 posts)I probably would have wanted to whoop some ass too.
Then again I wouldn't be stupid enough to let them outside while someone was in the yard.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)WhollyHeretic
(4,074 posts)instead of going for vengeance.
Laurian
(2,593 posts)never react so violently as to hunt down and beat somebody. WTH? How about taking some responsibility for the dogs and then making a phone call to express your concern or try to get a resolution.
still_one
(92,454 posts)are entitled to defend themselves.
Whether the dogs would or would not of attacked the meter maid was unknown to the meter maid, and to wait to see if the dogs would attack or not is not reasonable for the victim.
There are a fair number of irresponsible dog owners out there. When I was walking my pug in the neighborhood a huge dog came toward us in attack mode. I picked up my pug and blocked him in my arms, while the large dog was snarling and snapping at my legs. The owner finally appeared, and thought it was funny. I told the owner there are leash laws in California, and you can get yourself in real trouble if you don't control your dogs.
IVoteDFL
(417 posts)I live in an apartment. I have no idea what typically happens when they come to read the meter. Is it possible that she didn't know someone was in the yard?
That I think, is the only defense for the owner. It is definitely irresponsible and stupid to let the dogs out when you are aware that there is someone out there.
However, I can 100% understand the anger if you let your dog out into your own yard without knowing someone was out there and they pepper spray your dog. It's nothing like a leash law, since that is enforced in public and this was someone's own property.
Orrex
(63,234 posts)Not at any house I've owned nor at any apartment I've rented. I believe that the service agreement with the utility company includes language allowing the reader to have reasonable access to the property for purposes of checking the meter, so this would supersede any per-incident need to advise the site owner of his/her presence.
still_one
(92,454 posts)which is a big differences, so I need to rethink about protocol
Stll, this does not justify assaulting another person with intent to do bodily harm
The correct action would have been, get the I'd of the reader, wash the dogs eyes out with water or take to a vet, and report to the appropriate channel what occurred, probably starting with the utility company, but potentially the police department
In California many homes have smart meter which do not require readers. In the past if pge came to read the meter they would always come to the front door first, show ids, then go read the meter
Hayduke Bomgarte
(1,965 posts)`
Orrex
(63,234 posts)a la izquierda
(11,797 posts)Which is why I don't let them out unattended. I don't need my 65# hunting dog chasing down something (like a squirrel or deer) and trying to kill it.
A meter maid wouldn't phase him in the slightest, but the meter maid doesn't know if my dog is approaching to be friendly (likely) or to bite (not likely). I wouldn't blame her/him for spraying my dogs.
lumberjack_jeff
(33,224 posts)bravenak
(34,648 posts)virgogal
(10,178 posts)It looks like "Raw Story " is trying to make this incident into something racial.
Another example of journalism today.
WillowTree
(5,325 posts)NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)If someone pepper sprayed my dog I'd kick some ass too.
Logical
(22,457 posts)NaturalHigh
(12,778 posts)Oneironaut
(5,530 posts)If these were gigantic pit bulls charging at the meter maid, wouldn't the use of pepper spray be justified?
There are way too many crappy dog owners out there.
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)It's not uncommon to see dogs described as pit bulls (and phobic people seem to think any dog bigger than a bread box with a square head is a pit bull) that are obviously mixes with some mastiff or other large breed molosser, but those are still medium or large dogs. A dog can be "gigantic" or a pit bull but it can't be both.
I have a giant breed dog (a Tosa Inu aka Japanese Mastiff) who isn't even fully grown yet and he weighs more than two adult pit bulls. Fully grown he'll outweigh three. That's a gigantic dog.
Logical
(22,457 posts)tkmorris
(11,138 posts)Then you also would go to jail. As you should.
ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)If they think there is a race angle to play, they will do it.
There have of course been plenty of incidents of intra-racial incidents involving people spraying dogs who were attacking and then being attacked by the owner.
Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)Fucking tiresome...
tishaLA
(14,176 posts)Race and gender may have played a role even at an unconscious level. I suspect that a white woman confronting an African American woman will respond quite differently than if she were confronting a white man. I'm sure the social sciences back me up on that suspicion, too.
Orrex
(63,234 posts)You're imagining a "subconscious" motive where none is yet known, and the details of race are--at this point--irrelevant to the woman assaulting the reader. We don't know that she assaulted her because she's black; that's an assumption not yet borne out by the known facts.
If the headline had read Large-Breasted Indiana woman viciously beats Shoe-Wearing Meter Reader for Pepper-Spraying her Dogs, it would have been equally irrelevant.
This issue is that she assaulted an innocent victim; she may have been motivated by racism, but we don't yet know that, and we have no compelling basis for assuming it. She might very well have assaulted a white meter reader who pepper-sprayed her dogs. We simply don't know, so it's simply irresponsible and sensationalistic for the headline to read that way.
tishaLA
(14,176 posts)and I'm not "imagining" any motive; I'm simply saying that social science tells us that people respond differently to African American (or Latina) women than they do to white men. Is that the case here? I don't know...and I never said I did. But I do know that saying it had "nothing" to do with the escalation is both too certain of motivation and too dismissive of the roles race and gender play in interpersonal relations.
Also, Indiana.
Orrex
(63,234 posts)The "journalist" posted an-as-yet-irrelevant detail, and you're justifying it on the basis of your assumption about the "journalist's" intent--an assumption that is as yet unjustified.
Given the facts of the story as reported, the victim's race and the perpetrator's race are not relevant, and that's really the end of it. It may be that race was a factor, but until it is, it is irresponsible to report it.
tishaLA
(14,176 posts)And, again, I have said nothing about the "intent" of the journalist and I've not made any kind of assumption about that intent. I'm telling you why it's interesting from my perspective and why saying the meter reader's race had "nothing to do with the story is, itself, an unsupportable assumption. The fact it, it may...or may not. I've avoided declarations of certainty and have instead expressed ways that foreclosing race and gender as a factor is entirely too facile.
Orrex
(63,234 posts)All kinds of factors "may" have played a role in the assailant's motivation, but at this point we have no basis to focus any one of them. We know that the reader pepper-sprayed the dogs, and we know that the assailant beat her.
If you were to run over a pedestrian with your car by accident, would it be relevant for the news article to begin with a declaration of your race and the victim's? Would race be relevant if you ran over the pedestrian because she keyed your car?
tishaLA
(14,176 posts)I just think the absolute certainty that her race had "nothing" to do with it is premature and unfounded.
In both the scenarios in your final paragraph, the answer is "maybe."
ETA: I just noticed you called mentioning her race "sensationalizing." I think I'm through here.
In all sincerity, it's clear to me that your experience in these matters is wildly different--and more directly and broadly informed--than mine, so I'd like to apologize for being a blowhard about it.
REP
(21,691 posts)At its worst, it's crap like this.
restorefreedom
(12,655 posts)other than trying to juice up the headline and stir shit that might not even be there in this case, I didn't read it as a racial issue at all but rather the dog guardian versus the meter reader plain and simple.
dorkzilla
(5,141 posts)That said, if I let my dogs out without knowing the meter reader was out there, the dogs are GOING TO TRY to protect their territory by barking. Thats what we domesticated them for.
They also bark like maniacs when there are squirrels in the back yard.
Im glad my meter is in front of the house where the dogs arent allowed to go off leash.
mythology
(9,527 posts)But not following her and returning with backup. If somebody threatens my dogs, they are going to have a problem. But once the immediate threat is gone, I would attend to the dogs and pursue legal recourse later.
Logical
(22,457 posts)Desert805
(392 posts)Many fine people have been to jail. It's not the end of the world.
Logical
(22,457 posts)Pepper spray my dog in my own backyard and find out.
Logical
(22,457 posts)Desert805
(392 posts)I hope that post doesn't land me in the pokey!
Demit
(11,238 posts)I guess they've never had their meter read before. Weird story.
Quackers
(2,256 posts)They may want to read the fine print that not only allows the meter reader to be there, but also lays out what the homeowner must do to ensure the safety of the meter reader.
Response to still_one (Original post)
tishaLA This message was self-deleted by its author.
Snobblevitch
(1,958 posts)the meter reader for the utility (public utility in a small town) came to your house, knocked on the door, you let them in and hey went to your basement to read the meters. The local Culligan man (water softener company) delivered salt that way as well. He went downstairs and dumped salt into the water softener container.
leftyladyfrommo
(18,874 posts)than I would be of the dogs. What on earth was wrong with her? And why would you turn your dogs out on someone like that in the first place?
I work with dogs. That's what I do and this whole scenario is just nuts.
Anyone seeing 2 dogs charging straight at you would move to defend themselves. A police officer would have shot them.
That owner was wrong on so many levels.
BumRushDaShow
(129,662 posts)for all of the utilities. The utility worker drives by each house on their route every month (or on some fixed schedule where some months are estimates) and the reading is automatically transmitted to the reader's vehicle. They don't even have to get out of their vehicle and come on some loon's property.
csziggy
(34,139 posts)So I doubt that the owner of the dogs let them out on their own just to relieve themselves.
Video of the house is at: http://www.14news.com/story/30321508/epd-investigating-attack-on-vectren-employee
Looking at the house the meter is on the side, visible to the street and next to the driveway. It's not as if the meter reader had to go through gates or navigate through a private backyard.
Also, in the article it is claimed that Jordan followed the meter reader and saw the Vectren van, then returned home to attempt to contact the utility company. When she was unable to get the response she wanted from Vectren, she and her boyfriend then went out, found the meter reader and attacked her.
So Jordan KNEW that the meter reader's purpose in the yard was legitimate, and showed premeditation in attacking the woman well after the woman had left the house.
While I would be upset if someone sprayed my dog with pepper spray for no reason, I would not resort to physically attacking a person if they did it for their self protection while they were doing their job.
If I were on a jury on this case, I would vote for the most severe charges possible against this woman!
melman
(7,681 posts)Seems like maybe an important detail.
Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)Indiania needs to get with the times. I havent seen a meter reader in 10 years.